We’ve all joked about how a stressful situation is ‘turning us grey’.
Now scientists at Harvard University have proved there is fact behind the fiction.
It turns out stress causes nerves that are part of the fight-or-flight response to release a hormone called noradrenaline, or norepinephrine that can damage the pigment-regenerating stem cells in your hair – forever.
Unfortunately, the way the researchers worked this out was by testing the effect of stress on mice’s hair.
The animals were stressed over several days by being restrained for four hours a day, Monday to Friday (like being tied to the desk at work?) or through combinations of damp bedding, rapid changes to lighting and having their cages tilted (sound like torture!)
After a few days, the mice lost all their pigment-regenerating stem cells or melanocytes – which determine the colour of your hair – permanently.
Ya-Chieh Hsu, the stem cell biologist behind the study, believes a similar response is responsible for age-related greying – and says it also explains why you often get sick after a long period of stress because it depresses the stem cells needed for immunity.
The scientists say the discovery could now help them uncover how the drop in stem cells contributes to ageing.
Good news (hopefully not involving anymore mice!)
